


A Guide to Guerrilla Knitting

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Series: A History of Handcrafts [2]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Communication, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Knitting, Minor Injuries, Prompt Fic, Silly, Teasing, cotton candy bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-12
Updated: 2013-01-12
Packaged: 2017-11-25 04:36:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/635183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being Jim Kirk's friend doesn't magically make him less annoying.  But Nyota can hold her own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Guide to Guerrilla Knitting

**Author's Note:**

> This story is A) a sequel to A History of Handcrafts (Because a Sweater Equals Love), B) a response to the Cotton Candy Bingo prompt _sprains/strains_ , and C) a comment!fic for cherokee1. Which is rather a lot to hang on such a short ficlet, but there it stands. Also, Christine Chapel is a doctor rather than a nurse mostly because I felt like it and it's a canon alternate timeline so why not.

"You should've gone straight to breaking your leg, none of this wishy-washy sprained foot nonsense," Kirk said accusingly as he dropped into a chair beside Nyota's bed in sickbay. "How do you even sprain a foot anyway? Sprained ankle, sure, that makes sense, but a foot? That sounds fishy to me."

Answering him sounded like far too much work, particularly since Kirk knew perfectly well how she'd sprained her foot. He'd been in the rec center when she'd fallen, after all -- he was getting better about not hiding his knitting habit, but he still preferred to indulge only in the presence of his closest friends, and then only when they were absorbed in other activities. She would admit, if pressed, that she was glad he'd been there to call sickbay, though she could have done without his suggestion that she find a safer hobby. Dancing wasn't a part of herself she was willing to sacrifice, even if it occasionally left her with irritating physical inconveniences.

Of course, nothing said she had to answer him verbally. Nyota stuck her tongue out instead.

Kirk blinked. "Did you just stick your tongue out at me?"

Nyota wiggled her tongue around by way of illustrating what a stupid question that was.

"Bones, you made her drunk!" Kirk shouted. "My communications officer is refusing to communicate and also acting like a kindergartener."

Jerk. Body language was a completely legitimate form of communication, and Nyota prided herself on fluency in all areas of her specialty. Particularly ones that had _extracurricular uses_ , as it were. She licked her lips and grinned at Kirk, all vicious teeth and insincere innuendo.

He twitched. "Bones, I'm serious, come undo whatever you did!"

"Dr. McCoy can't undo anything because he's off duty right now," Dr. Chapel called back from the other side of sickbay where she was fiddling with the settings on a large and somewhat intimidating machine. "He did, however, give me permission to whack you over the head with Lt. Uhura's splint if necessary. Will that be necessary?"

"I don't get why a splint is necessary," Kirk said, turning back to Nyota and crossing his eyes at her. "We can fix bones. What's so different about... whatever goes wrong in a sprain? Muscles or tendons or something like that, stop giving me that look, Uhura, I'm a captain, not a doctor."

Nyota rolled her eyes.

"Bones are a rigid and relatively simple structure," Dr. Chapel said, setting her tricorder on Nyota's bed. "Muscles and tendons, among numerous other characteristics, have an unfortunate tendency to move and change shape. And we use splints for broken bones too, to provide a bit of extra support and remind patients not to put stress on fractures before the surrounding tissue is back to normal. I'm going to fit this to your leg now," she added to Nyota. "Please swing your foot off the bed."

Nyota sat up, letting the sheet puddle around her waist, and swung her bare right leg over the side of the bed. Dr. Chapel slid a lightweight frame of hard plastic strips over her swollen foot (which still pinged oddly in the back of her head, as if it _ought_ to be throbbing with heat and pain in time to her own heartbeat, but only a ghost echo of that sensation penetrated the pleasant glow of her painkillers) and began to adjust the connecting straps.

"You realize right now you look like you're not wearing any clothes from the waist down," Kirk said.

Nyota caught Dr. Chapel's eye and and tipped her head ever-so-slightly in Kirk's direction. The doctor smiled faintly and, without turning, gently knocked Kirk on the shoulder with her tricorder. "I also have permission to hypospray you," she said. "Behave."

Kirk stuck his tongue out at the doctor's back. Nyota determinedly fought down her smile.

"So how long does this need to stay on?" Kirk asked after a minute, while Dr. Chapel continued to adjust straps and run a shaping tool along the plastic supports, contouring them ever-closer to Nyota's skin. "And will she need crutches or is this good for limited walking while Lt. Uhura recovers?"

"The splint will keep your foot rigid and help distribute weight to avoid reinjuring the sprain, but crutches are definitely in your future for the next two days," Dr. Chapel said to Nyota. "We'll run the regenerator every evening -- don't forget to come down for your appointments -- and reassess in four days."

Kirk made a disappointed noise. "Only four days? Damn, and here I was hoping I'd get a chance to yarnbomb your foot. So much classier than just doodling on a cast with permanent marker. But I don't get nearly enough downtime to knit the kind of decoration you deserve in three days or less."

Nyota caught Dr. Chapel's eyes again, then glanced toward the door.

"Captain, I'm afraid my patient has requested that you leave," Dr. Chapel said. "Will I need to haul out a hypospray?"

"One of these days I'm going to haul Bones up for fomenting insubordination and mutinous leanings among the medical staff," Kirk grumbled, but he stood and obediently headed toward the door. "Give Spock my regards, Uhura, and I expect both of you on the bridge for alpha shift. _Talking_ , preferably."

Nyota tossed him a jaunty salute and began mentally brushing up on her Andorian Sign Language. It was tricky for humans to reproduce without antennae to add precision to the ambiguous hand and facial gestures, but the challenge was half the fun. She thought Kirk would appreciate the joke.

(Two weeks later, Nyota held a knitted blue hat with wire-and-pompom antennae in her hands and dissolved into helpless laughter.)


End file.
